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Transit options: Streetcar desire

LOCAL OFFICIALS who want to look at expanding streetcar service in Savannah are on the right track, but it's not a case of full-speed ahead.

Any new transportation option is worth investigating. Public transit buses appear to have an image problem, which is unfair and often inaccurate. But streetcars speak to people differently. They're retro, harkening back to the early 1900s and before. Indeed, streetcars are almost an attraction in themselves.

Adding a streetcar line to the MLK corridor could bolster the nascent revitalization in that area, boosting its historic feel and providing an easy way for downtown visitors to expand their Savannah experience. If the rail line were met with an upsurge in restaurants and shops along MLK, the streetcar might prove a valuable economic development tool.

The same could be said for many other areas in and around downtown, which are long on available commercial space, but short on parking space.

Meanwhile, a rail circuit between the big downtown hotels, parking garages and other high-volume destinations might get cars off the street and ease the transportation flow for visitors and commuters.

Still, it is important to count the costs, as well as the benefits.

Sean Brandon, Savannah's director of mobility and parking services, estimates the rail system will cost somewhere between $5 million and $10 million a mile to build, not counting operation. That's not chump change. So any plan to add streetcars must begin with how the public will pay for them.

The high expense makes research into the likely payoffs in commercial development and ridership critical in the decision to invest in extending a streetcar system past the east-west River Street line. (The hybrid-biodiesel streetcar runs five days a week.)

It also requires wise choices on routes and destinations. If a bus route sees low ridership, it can always be changed. Once the streetcar rails are laid, changing a route is nearly impossible. That's why adding the transportation option to heavily traveled, in-town routes would seem to make the most sense.

City leaders, who are mulling the addition of a cruise ship terminal just east of the current riverfront, should also consider a streetcar line to ferry passengers from ship to shop. Other talk, such as adding a line along the heavily traveled and clogged DeRenne Avenue, seems more dubious at this point.

Where would the streetcar riders get off and on, and what destinations would draw them? The addition of any new rail line would have to occur only after - or at least in mind of - a massive proposed road construction project at the west end of DeRenne.

Other cities, such as New Orleans, have a long history with streetcars. Some, such as Charlotte, N.C., have recently won federal grants to start their own lines.

Savannah isn't as large as either city. But it does have a central urban core that attracts a lot of people. If a federal grant is available to study the concept here, city leaders should get on the money train before it leaves the station.